Chapel Hill Minister Robert Campbell invited to speak at White House conference

Minister Robert Campbell, long-time Chapel Hill activist for Social and Environmental Justice, has been invited to the White House on Friday, Nov. 20th, to speak to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about issues in the Rogers-Eubanks community related to clean energy and public health.

He has been invited to join this distinguished panel in a White House briefing on the public health benefits of a clean energy economy. This event will bring together public health advocates and community leaders, experts from U.S. agencies, and White House officials for a discussion on the lasting public health benefits of a clean energy economy.

In reacting to the invitation, Minister Campbell said, “This is a great honor and privilege, to be able to tell the story of the Rogers-Eubanks community, to have our voice heard on a national level. We are concerned about our drinking water and our health and the fact that we are bordered on both sides by solid waste facilities. This is not just something for our community, but a national issue: the quality of life and health as we move into a clean energy future. It is imperative not to stand at the doors of injustice, but to open the doors and enter. We must be the bold voice and speak out against injustice for those that have no voice.”

Minister Campbell presently serves as a member of the deacon board at the Faith Tabernacle Oasis of Love International Church and is President of the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association (RENA), co-founder and co-chair of the Coalition to End Environmental Racism (CEER; https://rogersroad.wordpress.com), and 3rd Vice President and Head of the Environmental Justice Committee of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro NAACP. He is also a Board Member of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network and community research associate in partnership with the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.